A programmable culture platform for hydrostatic stimulation and in situ pH sensing of lung cancer cells with organic electrochemical transistors

In this work, we present a programmable dynamic cell culture stimulation platform designed to work in a CO2 incubator, compatible with a standard multi-well plate. An epithelial lung cell culture can be mechanically stimulated with a cyclic increase of the hydrostatic pressure inside the culture chamber in the range 1–12 kPa, trying to mimic the human respiration rate. An in situ live pH-monitoring system based on PEDOT:PSS Organic ElectroChemical Transistors was also designed, fabricated and characterized, in order to merge both the stimulated cell culture and the pH sensing in a compact platform.